


The Call Of The Moon

by RogueTiger



Series: Supercorp [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Lena doesn't know what she is, Lillian is a good mom in her own twisted way, Werewolf!Lena
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2020-10-21 04:40:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20687651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RogueTiger/pseuds/RogueTiger
Summary: With the weight of Lex's twisted legacy on her shoulders and the reins of Luthor Corp in her hands, Lena Luthor moves to the home of Earths new Kryptonian not knowing the legacy Lillian had been guarding her against.=======While doing battle against three powerful aliens, Kara finds herself alone and without her powers with a massive wolf-like creature with pretty amber eyes the likes she has never seen before. But, before she can make friends, they are attacked and Kara is left wondering just what she had seen and if she will ever see it again when no one believes what she saw even exists.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The full disk of the moon shone full and bight above National City. Its light shone so brightly across the landscape that the hills and forest that bordered the city were as brightly lit as the sprawling city with all its man-made lighting that lay within the cupping hollow created by the hills and the sea beyond.

The dull, sonic boom that rang through the air was a common occurrence that barely stirred the creatures sleeping either beneath the trees; high up in the branches; or huddled beneath the warm Californian earth in their burrows. Even the ones that called the night their hunting ground didn’t bother to look up until a streak of red and blue tumbled down from above and gouged a furrow into the ground before finally coming to a stop in a clearing in a plume of dirt that rose up above the height of the trees.

As the dust settled, a lone doe stepped bravely forward. Her steps were light and cautious. Her hooves lifting clear of the thin grass so as not to make a sound. Her ears twitched and her body became still as a moan and a cough came from the crater. She fled, the white of her tail flashing a warning to anyone willing to listen as a hand appeared above the line of the hole and a figure slowly clambered out and stood up.

**********

Kara winced as she pressed a hand to her stomach and felt the echo of the ache from the aliens clubbing blow that appeared to have landed her somewhere far removed from the National City harbour where she had been moments before as pain radiated out from the bruises she could feel within her ribs and muscles.

That had been a hard shot and she was looking forward to returning it!

Lifting an arm, her fist clenching, she bent her knees to take off and found herself doing nothing more than a small hop that would have embarrassed a baby bunny with how pathetic it was.

“Oh no. No. No. Not now!” She groaned. She couldn’t afford to have solar flared and lost her powers, not now! Not when there were three very large and very angry aliens rampaging through the streets of her city!

She tried again and again, but each attempt was just as futile as she hopped in place an embarrassingly tiny amount with no powers to lift her into the sky.

Growling her frustration into the night, she lifted a finger to her ear to call for help. “Alex! Vasquez! Come in! Alex?” Digging her finger a little deeper in confusion at the lack of voices, static or anything, Kara soon found that the small earpiece that was both an annoyance as well as a comfort was missing.

Just in case, she tried pushing off from the ground again and ended up stumbling over a stone when her bunny hop was as ineffectual as all the others.

“Great! No powers and No backup.” She didn’t even know which way to start walking to get back to the city. For all she knew, the DEO’s desert facility could be closer. “At least I’ve got company, right?” she asked a pair of stunning amber eyes watching her from a dark thicket of trees and shrubs that not even the light from the moon was bright enough to reach.

“My, what big eyes you’ve got.”

The bushes rustled and the substantial trunks of trees rustled and swayed as the eyes shifted closer and a sleek, black-furred muzzle peaked out of the darkness and an equally dark nose snuffled and snorted in her direction.

“Oh! A doggy! Are you lost?” Kara crooned. Kneeling down, she held out a hand and made soothing and hopefully encouraging noises to try and tempt her new friend out of hiding. Only, instead of moving closer, the amber eyes moved up. And up! Rising out of the bushes as something much bigger stepped slowly into view on massive, clawed paws.

“Not a doggo,” Kara nearly tripped over her cape as she scrambled back to her feet and took in what stood before her. Its head was clearly that of a wolf now she could see it better. But even Kara knew that wolves generally didn’t stand at well over eight-foot-tall and walk around on two feet outside of horror movies as this one did.

“You are so handsome though.” The wolfs finely shaped head tilted as amber eyes studied her cautiously. Holding up her hand, she stepped closer. “Are you a good boy?” The wolf huffed and gave her a look that Kara could only interpret as offended. Dropping her eyes down the deep barrel of its chest and lower, Kara realized why when she saw the smoothness of its anatomy. “Sorry, my mistake,” she giggled. “Good girl. I hope you are anyway.”

There was an intelligence in the wolf’s actions, and especially in her eyes, that had Kara questioning what she might be. She knew there were more species in the universe than she knew of but she had never learned of any on Krypton or from studying the DEO’s databases that matched the one before her.

Kara watched, mesmerized as the wolf creatures thickly furred ears twitched back and forth. It was probably her love of animals and maybe a healthy dose of concussion from hitting the ground clouding her judgement, but Kara’s fingers itched with the urge to touch her ears and the rest of her to see if its shining black coat was as thick and luxuriant as it looked.

“Can you understand—” Kara’s voice trailed away as a strange noise coming from behind her drew her attention away from her new friend. With her powers gone she felt blind, deaf and just generally helpless as the unknown, rushing, beating sound grew closer and closer. It was a familiar sound but she was used to hearing things differently when her powers were intact and couldn’t quite place it. Whatever it was, its progress was fast and strong enough to bend aside the tops of the trees in its path.

The wolf broke from cover with a snarl as wind and dirt swirled and whipped across the ground with a blinding intensity that forced Kara to shield her eyes and face from it. She called out beseechingly as the sleekly muscled form of the black wolf raced away from the invasive searchlight slung beneath it as a helicopter came into view but the words were ripped from her mouth and tossed aside by the wind.

The searchlight swept over Kara but her hopes of seeing Alex looking down at her were dashed as the light and the helicopter banked away and kept going in pursuit of the wolf. The light was too bright to make out faces within the helicopter but as it turned again, she saw a figure leaning out of it with an inelegant, long-barreled weapon raised towards the wolf.

The muzzle flashed as they fired a quick burst that chewed up the ground in the wake of the wolf.

“No!”

Kara ran, her blood pounding in her ears as she strained to cover the distance already created between them. It would have meant nothing to her if her powers hadn’t been blown but as it was, she felt as though she was trying to run while weighed down by Nth metal as she tried to catch up.

She caught glimpses of the one-sided battle through the trees as the shots from the helicopter was joined by more from the ground as scores of people dressed head to toe in black tactical gear riding quad bikes and dirtbikes cut the wolf off from her chosen escape route and forced her to turn in the direction they wanted.

Snatching up a hefty branch, Kara swung it at a rider that was about to pass her and knocked him straight back off his dirt bike. “Sorry, not sorry!” she called over her shoulder as she claimed the dirtbike for herself and set off after the others.

She would have thought that they would have wanted to keep the wolf in the open where the helicopter could have had more freedom but as she emerged from her breakneck race through the trees, she hadn’t expected that they would have trapped her near what looked to be a sheer drop off.

They held back as the helicopter lined her up for a shot and Kara could do little more than watch as she was too far away to stop them or even make herself heard.

With a roar that was almost swallowed by the noise of the copter, the wolf leapt upwards in a graceful arc. The pilot tried to climb and bank away but Kara watched, her heart in her mouth as the wolf caught it. Its claws scored right through the metal as if it was made of paper as it hunched over the open door and leaned inside.

Gunshots rang out, the flash of the muzzle lighting up the inside of the helicopter and the outline of the wolf with an intensity and ferocity that strobed across Kara’s vision like a camera flash.

The wolf slumped back, the weight of the beast making the copter sway drunkenly and sent the riders converged on the edge of the cliff scattering as the pilot fought to compensate for it and keep the copter in the air.

Kara raced across the ground and tried to take to the air once more but her boots scuffed and thumped into the dirt ineffectively as she stumbled and pitched into a sprawl on the ground as the wolfs grip finally failed and it tumbled from the copter and down below the edge of the cliff with its eyes glazed but locked on her.

Scrambling back to her feet, Kara raced forward as the helicopter and the others all seemed to vanish as quickly as they had appeared.

“No! No!” Dropping to her knees, she scrambled to the edge and looked over. The bottom of the cliff lay far below but thankfully it looked as though the wolf had slid down much of it if the scree still falling was any indication. It still put it far out of reach though and with no way for her to follow without the use of her powers, Kara was forced to play the part of a spectator as an expensive-looking, blacked-out SUV pulled up beside it along with an armoured van and figures alighted from both.

Kara could make out very little about them other than one was definitely a woman. One that carried herself with the kind of poise that went hand in hand with money and a commanding attitude. She should know, she’d seen that from Cat Grant every day since she had started working as her assistant. She was clearly the one in charge there.

The woman strode over to the now bound wolf as the people with her struggled to load it into the van. She grasped its jaw and turned its head from side to side as though inspecting a purchase and leaned closer as though to whisper something in its ear.

“Shoot!” Kara scrambled back as she leaned forward too much and sent a fresh shower of rocks pouring down over the edge that caught the woman’s attention. She straightened and barked out an order to a dark-skinned man at her side. Moments later, Kara found herself going from helpless observer to being the one pursued as high-powered weapons were aimed and fired with ruthless precision, and the helicopter appeared from back over the trees to threaten her.

Most of the shots fired at Kara fell short but she felt the sting of something hitting her thigh and shoulder as she raced back amongst the trees. But, it wasn’t until one fired from the helicopter caught her dead centre of the El crest across her chest that Kara looked down saw that she had been shot with some kind of a dart and not a bullet.

She plucked them from her flesh but it was too late. She could already feel her vision starting to narrow off and grow dark around the edges without her powers to help stave off the effects.

Kara staggered determinedly on, her thoughts swirling as she headed for thicker and thicker cover as far away from the probing beam of the searchlight attached to the helicopter before it could get a fix on where she was. She had no idea who they were or why they had attacked the wolf, but Kara knew that she had a better chance of being able to help if she was free than to get caught without her powers and maybe even killed just to make sure she didn’t cause trouble for them.

Alex would never let her live it down if she got herself killed!

Her feet dragged through leaves, grass and exposed roots that pitched her into the rough bark of towering trees that loomed out of the darkness too quickly for her to avoid them. Branches and vines snagged on her cape and tights, twisting her around as she pitched face-first into a soft mattress of leaves that billowed up to blanket her body.

**********

“… Kara! Kara!”

“Five more minutes, Alex.”

“Kara!!”

Kara reluctantly blinked open her eyes and looked up at her sisters face as she leaned over her, her expression almost comically matching the one of the bird that was perched on the branch above Alex’s head.

Wait! Why was there a tree in her apartment!?

“Kara!”

“Ow!” She whined in protest as Alex gave her cheek a stinging pat that she shouldn’t have been able to feel.

“Ow? Since when did you ow?”

“Since I lost my powers. I solar flared during the fight,” Kara grumbles as she struggled into a sitting position with Alex’s help. “What happened with the aliens?”

“We managed to round them up eventually and spent the rest of the night trying to work out where you went.”

“Night?” Kara blinked as she looked around, peering through the branches to the sun above. “Rao! How long was I out?”

“Too long. Hey, stay sitting right where you are, Kara,” pushing on her sister’s shoulders, Alex forced her to stay put. “I need to take a look at you.”

“I’m fine,” she protested.

“Solar flaring isn’t fine, Kar. Just sit still and let me be a big sister.”

“You’re that even when I’ve got my powers, Alex,” Kara reminded her with a fond smile.

“Yeah, but now I get to do this and you can feel it,” she flicked Kara on the forehead, pulling a whine from her little sister. “God, I’ve been so worried. I thought I’d lost you and here you are taking a nap in a pile of leaves.”

“At least the leaves were more comfortable than the crater I started off it.” Kara regretted saying that as Alex’s eyes grew a little misty and her lips compressed into a line. “Look at me, Alex. I’m okay.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Ow!” Kara hissed out a whine as Alex set about finding every bruise she could with ruthless determination and sharp fingers. “I’ll be okay after some time under the lamps. Not like I would have been taking a nap if I hadn’t been shot full of darts. At least they weren’t Kryptonite though, right?” she rambled on, unaware that Alex had gone still.

“You were shot… with darts?”

“Yeah. Hurt too. I just hope the werewolf is still alive. Hey, why did no one ever tell me werewolves were real? I thought they were just from horror movies and books but she was so pretty.”

“Excuse me?”

“Werewolves—”

“I heard that. Definitely concussion. Vasquez! Get in touch with Doctor Hamilton and tell them Supergirl will need to be put under observation! Concussion protocol! Come on, let’s get you back to the DEO and get your head looked at. Hopefully, I won’t have to tell mom you’re brain damaged.”

“Hey, I’m not brain— Alex. I saw a werewolf, I’m not brain-damaged,” she protested as Alex hoisted her off the ground with a firm hand and tried to get her to lie down on a waiting stretcher.

“Uh huh. Sure, Kar,” Alex patted Kara’s shoulder. “Mom is going to kill me,” she grumbled under her breath.


	2. Chapter 2

“Kara! Kara! Wait up!”

Kara slowed her urgent stride down slightly to allow Winn to catch up with her but she didn’t dare stop as she could already hear the heels of Cat Grant’s expensive shoes ringing out in warning as they struck the tiled floor of the lobby far below. She knew exactly how many steps it would take to get to the elevator and exactly how long it would take before she was stepping out of it expecting her morning coffee to be waiting for her. And woe betide the whole floor, but especially Kara, if it wasn’t at exactly the right temperature even though there was no earthly way that was possible given the distance between where she preferred her coffee from, and CatCo when she never told Kara what time she was going to be arriving.

She just expected it and, so far, Kara had managed to mostly juggle appearing human and doing the impossible with careful use of her powers. A quick blast timed just at the right moment from her heat-vision got it up to a perfect temperature every time and Cat’s busy schedule kept her sharp mind from focussing too much on how her assistant was able to pull off miracles. But, Kara wouldn’t be able to pull off anything, let alone a hot drink, if Winn delayed her too long.

“Ms Grant is on her way up.” She warned her strangely over-excited friend. Apparently, the warning wasn’t enough as Winn barrelled on regardless and bounced beside her instead of keeping his head down and running for cover as everyone else had the moment they had seen her heading for her position by the elevator Ms Grant insisted be kept for her use only.

Below them, Kara heard Cat enter her elevator and heard her stab at the floor button in a way that said she was in even less of a good mood than usual.

“Guess who’s moving here, to National City?” Winn hissed urgently.

“The lead singer of that K-pop, boy band you like?” Kara threw out with a shrug when she couldn’t think of anything else that would get him so riled up.

“What? No! Wait, have you heard something?” Grabbing her arm, he gave an urgent shake that moved only the fabric and not the woman wearing it.

“Winn! If you have something that needs saying you better hurry. Ms Grant is on her way up, right now!” she waved a hand pointedly towards the elevator in an attempt to focus him.

“Sorry! That’s all your fault for getting my hopes up and distracting me!” Winn swallowed nervously and drew back as his friend shot him the kind of look that had evildoers trembling in their boots. “Lena Luthor!” he spat the name out of his mouth with more volume than he’d intended. Grabbing Kara by the elbow again, he leaned in closer and adjusted the volume of his voice. “It’s all over the news, Kara. Lena Luthor, newly crowned head of Luthor Corp, is moving the headquarters out of Metropolis to National City! How crazy is that!? How crazy is she?” he frowned, suddenly concerned for Kara’s wellbeing. “Oh god, does that make her your arch-nemesis?”

“Slow down, Winn! How many energy drinks have you had this morning? Lena Luthor helped bring Lex down and helped get him convicted by testifying against him. I’m sure she’s good.”

“Or she just wants people to think that! Next week she’ll be breaking out a Lexosuit and chasing you across National City in some nefarious plan for world domination!”

Before Kara could do more than frown at his exaggeration or point out how hypocritical it was to compare a woman he didn’t even know to her family with what Winn had gone through himself as the son of the Toymaker, she heard Cat Grant’s voice grumbling about someone making use of her private elevator. Glancing around, Kara lifted the lid of the coffee in her hand and tilted down her glasses just enough while she gave the liquid within a quick blast with her heat vision.

Even with a burst of super speed, Kara only just managed to get the lid back in place on the now almost scalding hot coffee, and fixed her glasses back in place in the nick of time. The elevator let out a ding that managed to sound more musical and important than the one of the elevator everyone else used and the doors parted to reveal Cat Grant standing there like an actress in a spotlight waiting for her cue from a director off-screen or cheers from her adoring fans.

She waited for the perfect amount of time to be seen, and then she stepped out with a catlike grace before the doors could shut. No matter how often she did it, somehow Cat always managed to look poised ready to strike and bored by everything around her all at the same time.

Typical cat.

“Keira! Get someone to spray some air freshener in there. Make it the good brand this time not that generic pine scent from the local dollar store. And send out a reminder to everyone that the elevator is for my personal use only. I refuse to start my day wallowing in the scent of their desperation.” Cat glared around the open-plan office, daring anyone to meet her gaze and judging the ones that didn’t.

“Yes, Ms Grant. Is there anything else, Ms Grant?”

“Of course there is! Push my nine-o’clock back to eight AM tomorrow. I’ll deal with that playboy Bruce Wayne when I’m ready and not a moment sooner. And get rid of that swill, Keira,” she waved a dismissive hand at the coffee being offered to her. “I want bulletproof from now on!”

“Bullet— proof?”

“Oh, Google it, Keira! Now go! Chop, chop! Not you, Waylen!”

“It’s Winn. Ms Grant. Winn Schott. Sorry. Yes. Waylen, it is then. What can I—?”

“Stop right there! My time is infinitely more valuable than yours and yet you are wasting my time speaking when you should be listening to me and fixing my computers? Well, don’t you want to know what’s wrong with them?”

“I— ehh— You told me to listen to you, Ms Grant.”

“Popups, Waylen! My computer erupted with them last night asking if I wanted to continue to play a game! And when I said no, it destroyed the report I had been working on for six hours!”

Winn stepped back in fear from the formidable woman, wondering if she somehow knew he had been using her computer and its massive screens that covered the walls of her office to play online games on. But instead of words, she fixed him with a glare as though daring him to open his mouth before turning on her heel and marching away to leave him to sag in relief… and wonder if she’d tried the game at all?

The thought that he might come across her playing Call of Duty or Fortnight online was terrifying and intriguing all at the same time.

Mostly though, it was terrifying.

**********

“Ms Luthor, you have a call waiting on line one.”

Slowly turning her chair, Lena placed the papers she had been reading down upon the desk and stared at the intercom in confusion. She had been distracted when she had returned to her office but she was fairly certain that she had told her assistant, Daniel, that he was to refuse all calls no matter what.

“Who is it, Daniel?”

“I am afraid I’m not at liberty to say, Ms Luthor.”

“Not at—” Lena’s body grew tense, her jaw tightening in understanding. There was only a select number of people that it could be. One was languishing in a maximum-security prison while the other, Lena had left behind in Metropolis. What bothered Lena the most though was the reverence she could hear in Daniel’s voice that left her wondering if he would force her to accept the call if she refused.

“Thank you, Daniel. If you are not too busy I’ve got something I need you to do.”

“Yes, Ms Luthor?”

“Clean out your desk and follow the good people from Security that you can probably see making their way toward you right now.”

“Ms Luthor!”

“The one thing I asked for was loyalty, Daniel. Your wages were substantial and yet, I can see that you are accepting money from an account number I am _very_ familiar with.”

“But—”

“I’ve arranged for a bonus from that account for you, hopefully, they won’t mind the redirection of their funds too much as I’m afraid that there will be no severance package or letter of recommendation from myself or anyone else associated with L-Corp. Good day.”

Disconnecting the call, Lena carefully hid all traces of the hacking she had been doing on her laptop while firing him, and sent an email to HR requesting another Personal Assistant as soon as it could be arranged before accepting the call waiting for her on line one.

“What can I do for you, Mother?”

“Did you have to do that dear, good help is so hard to find.”

“Yes, I’m finding that out for myself. The idea of this move was to remove L-Corp as far from the memory of Lex’s acts as possible.”

“L-Corp—”

“Get used to the name, mother. The board already agreed to it. Stocks, and the promise of money talk, and they were haemorrhaging both.”

“You could have done all this in Metropolis.”

“And I would have been dead within a week. Which would no doubt of suited you and Lex—”

“Don’t be like that dear, Lex and I love you.”

The phone creaked dangerously in Lena’s tightening grip.

“You could have picked anywhere, Lena,” Lillian sighed. “Why did it have to be there where _she_ is?”

“Superman is never going to give the Luthor name a chance. Maybe I’m hoping that my being here will mend some bridges when Supergirl sees the good I want to do.”

“Or she could just hate you just the same. Come home, Lena. Come back to Metropolis where you belong.”

“Where you can control me, you mean? No. I’ve made up my mind, mother. Respect that and stop buying my staff.”

“Then I guess I will just have to move to National City to be near you then.”

“What?”

“I will see you soon, dear.” Disconnecting the call, Lillian looked out of the blacked-out window of the town car at the towering glass building on _Cordova_ where the _Luthor Corp _logo was being removed from the outside, to where her daughter’s office lay near the top. “Henshaw, make the necessary calls. My daughter is being stubborn so we need to fast-track a more permanent base in National City for Cadmus within the month.”

**********

“Mother?” Growling in frustration, Lena glared at the silent phone in her hand. “Well. That’s just— Fuck.”

Pushing back her chair, Lena stood and stretched her back. Sitting hunched at a desk full of paperwork instead of experiments was something she was still getting used to. As was every element of being a CEO. She knew she had made the right decision, the only decision, to move L-Corp but that didn’t mean it had been easy. While she was sure that most of Metropolis had put aside their effigy burning to have a party to celebrate when she had left, she missed the few friends she’d had left there.

Okay, her two friends. The only ones she’d had that saw past the name and the money and hadn’t let Lillian bribe them or Lex threaten them.

“Lee!!!”

“Hi, Jack.”

“Missing me already, Lee Lee?”

“Don’t call me that, Jackie. And yes. I miss using your big fat head for target practice. How’s the cancer research coming along?”

“Impossible without you, Lee.”

“I—”

“Hey,” he quickly changed tack when he heard the unmistakable sound of her voice cracking. “You did what you had to, Lee. I miss you but we both know you had to go. There was too much Lex here.”

“You could come here—”

“Lee, we went over this. You had to leave—”

“You didn’t want to. I know.”

“Not that it isn’t tempting to continue our lives as each other’s beards to confuse the paps. How is the nightlife in National City? Is it quaint?”

“You do realize that National City is as big as Metropolis, right? I can’t vouch for the nightlife though.”

“No invites yet?”

“Jack, even if there were, I’m too deeply mired in relocating the business to think about showering some days.”

“Ew. But seriously, you need to take care of yourself, Lee. Get out and have some fun,” he cajoled. “Or at least try to remember the basics like food, water and hygiene. And answer your damn messages sometimes.”

“What?”

“Check your phone, babe. I called at least ten times the other night and you never called back.”

“I never saw them. Maybe I was somewhere with bad reception? What was wrong?”

“I was missing you. Okay, I might have wanted to gush about a cute boy I’d seen at the grocery store.”

“_You_, Jack Spheer, went inside a grocery store?”

“Yes… because I saw a cute boy go in. Do keep up, Lee!”

“Jack. You are so hopeless.”

“Without you, yes,” he sighed dramatically to draw a laugh from her.

“Come visit some time then. Maybe you’ll meet a cute guy here.”

“Have you met anyone cute yet? Any girls caught your eye?”

“Busy CEO with no time to shower, remember?” And yet, even as she said it, Lena had a flash of a memory of blonde hair and blue eyes that hit out of nowhere. She knew the person, the whole world did. But she had never seen her up close or seen a picture that looked as her memory did.

“—Lee— Lena?”

“What— Sorry— God, I’m sorry, Jack! Totally blanked out for a bit then. What did you say?”

“That doesn’t matter. Get some rest for god’s sake, Lena. You can’t be giving those unbearable stuffed shirts hell if you can’t function as a human being.”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, there’s no rest for the wicked.”

“And you are anything but wicked, Lena Luthor. You are a genius and good and the very best of us… Which I can tell you because I know it will not go to your head. Call me soon though, right? I want details on National City’s nightlife and any cute boys so I know if it’s worth packing my disco shirt when I find time to visit. Which will be sooner rather than later depending on those things.”

“I’m going to get Sam to burn that damn shirt one day, Jack.”

“Hey, that shirt has gotten me laid.”

“Out of pity only. That shirt is an affront to good taste and everyone that sees it is convinced you must to be blind.”

“They do not!”

“Sorry, Jack, they do. And that crazy assed dance move you do only helps to perpetuate the blind rumour.”

“You’re one to talk with that flail you call a dance move.”

“Ahh, but I know my dancing limitations and own them, Jack. Or did you think the brooding smoulder over a glass that attracts the ladies was an accident?”

“You crafty bitch!” He smiled as Lena laughed loudly knowing full well the toothy grin that would be on her face right then even though he couldn’t see it.

“I’ll speak to you soon, Jack.”

“You better. Love you, Lee.”

“Love you too, Jack.”

Lena felt rejuvenated as she put her phone down. Sad, but rejuvenated. Opening up the gallery on her phone, she flicked through pictures of them together and ones of Sam and Ruby too and promised herself she would talk to them as often as she could. Surely there could be time for them and maybe even herself once the company was up and running there?

Maybe even time for a connection of a more personal kind. Something that had been missing from her life even before Lex went off the rails. She tried but there was always something that got in the way that prevented any relationship making it as long as a month.

No time for things like that though. Not right then.

Lena’s fingers worked along the sleeve of her blouse, pulling it down at the cuffs to hide the faint bruising that encircled her wrists. A growl worked its way up her throat at the slight pain that lay there and scattered across the rest of her body beneath the cover of her clothing as the memory of golden-blonde hair flashed across her mind again.

It cycled around and around beneath the worrying touch of her fingers.

Pain.

Golden hair.

Pain.

Falling.

Anger.

Blue eyes.

Hunger.

Pain!

“Ms Luthor?”

“Yes?” Lena blinked out of her daze and looked up at the tap on the door and the call of her name. A young, Asian woman stepped into view through her office door with a calming presence that Daniel had been lacking even before he had turned out to be on her mother’s payroll.

“My name is Jessica Huang. HR asked me to come along to be your assistant until they can set up some interviews for a permanent replacement.”

“Jessica, what would you do if I asked you to block any calls from my family?”

“I would ask you what their names were, Ms Luthor,” Jess replied without hesitation as she flipped open her small notebook and took out a pen with a click of the nib to signal her readiness to do what her boss needed.

**********

“Anyway,” looking around furtively to make sure there is no one to see them talking, Winn scooted his chair around closer to Kara’s desk. “How are you feeling after last night with the whole power burn out thing?”

“Fine. I only solar flared a little. Alex decided to test out one of the yellow sun grenades rather than wait for nature or the sun lamps to fix it. I think she thought I was suffering from a concussion and that would help.”

“And did it? I mean, you were talking pretty crazy when we spoke last night.”

“I saw a werewolf, Winn, what is so crazy about that?” Kara frowned in exasperation.

“Because there are no such things as werewolves?”

“That was just the only name I could think of, Winn!” Kara dropped her head and smiled a quick apology to the mail clerk she had startled into losing control of his cart. “I’d never seen anything like her before to know what planet she was from but I saw her. I saw her get kidnapped and no one is looking just because I called her a werewolf. And don’t you dare argue the use of the word kidnapped right now, Winn. Call it what you want. It doesn’t matter how many teeth she had, how big she was or how fluffy her ears looked, she was chased, drugged and taken against her will!”

“Okay. How can I help?”

“What?”

“I believe you, Kara. I believe you and I want to help if I can. Something that size must have been spotted beforehand or shown up on CCTV cameras somewhere. If not your werewolf then there’s the helicopter. We could try tracking that. Repairs to those don’t come cheap and she tore it up.”

“Yes! The drugs they used had to be special too, right? Zoo grade maybe? I’ll do some digging around to see if anything was stolen from the zoo or from any veterinary hospitals.”

“There you go! A plan! We could compare what we dig up tomorrow and watch the _Venture _launch together?” He gestured hopefully to one of the many TV’s around the office that played the news continuously.

_“We are just hours away from the launch of _Venture_. The first commercial spacecraft designed for suborbital transportation.”_

It was a remarkable piece of engineering but the sight of it still gave Kara chills and left her fighting down the memory of been forced into the pod that had borne her away from her family and the flashes she’d had as she’d drifted in and out of stasis in the Phantom Zone for years.

“I’ll be on patrol when that’s happening.”

“Okay. That’s a shame. Maybe after?” Winn asked hopefully.

“Yeah, maybe—”

“There is too much talking and not enough working going on outside my office! Could it be that you have fixed my computers already Waylen?”

“Still working on it, Ms Grant!”

“Work faster, chat less!”

Kara winced in sympathy, keeping her head down as Ms Grant shot her a look that made Kara feel like she had disappointed her. Fortunately, if it could be called that, she was saved from further scrutiny by the sound of gunshots and screams from somewhere downtown.

“Winn. Cover for me!” she hissed urgently and made good her escape from Ms Grant’s sight and up into the air.

**********

“Ms Luthor. I’ve had a representative from the _Venture_ flight wanting confirmation as to your being on the flight tomorrow and if you will be available to take questions from the press afterwards but I can’t find any details from your previous assistant?”

“They should have been informed that I won’t be on it. Could you give them my apologies, Jess?”

“Right away, Ms Luthor. Oh—! I’m sorry, Ms Luthor,” she apologised profusely for her outburst and gestured toward the floor to ceiling window. “It has been a year and I’m still not used to the sight of her flying around. I guess one day I will be.”

“That’s okay, Jess. And believe me, it never gets old,” Lena muttered under her breath as she watched the streak of colour marking out the path of Supergirl’s flight across the city.

Lena had always felt that Superman’s flight lacked grace and seeing the way she manoeuvred around buildings and looped up into the sky in defiance of gravity only confirmed it. Lena held her breath as Supergirl flew closer but the blonde hero didn’t spare a glance towards the building.

She knew that it was inevitable that they would meet one day. Even if she did nothing wrong she knew it was only a matter of time before Super and Luthor came face to face either by chance or by the manipulation of outside forces. But she was hoping for that meeting to happen when she had some good deeds under her belt to outweigh the burden Lex had left burying her beneath the mire of his sin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some sexy Saskia to brighten your day (●♡∀♡)


	3. Chapter 3

Everywhere Lena looked there was news of the _Venture_ bombarding her from TV’s that seemed to be permanently tuned into footage from all the different news channels. It also reached in on the internet in the form of blogs, shaky footage from phone and articles, and everywhere she went she heard the name ‘_Venture_’ falling from everyone’s lips.

Hand in hand with it went the names of Supergirl and Superman as the latter had worked alongside his cousin to help bring the _Venture_ down safely in a field instead of the middle of the city.

It hadn’t been lost on Lena that when anyone realised she was around that the voices became hushed and looks turned hard and speculative as everyone looked at her as though wondering if the Luthor scorpion in their midst’s had had a hand in it. Luckily, no one seemed to have reported on the fact that she should have been on it but had pulled out at the last moment, as Lena was sure the gossip would have reached angry mob level if they knew that or what Lena had just had confirmed via a harried phone call.

“Ms Luthor—”

“Yes, Jess?” Lena looked up from her phone at Jess’ harried tone as she left her desk and walked towards her with an expression that said she was ready to throw down for her. Over her assistant's shoulder, she saw who was standing in the waiting area outside her office. “Ah— It’s okay, Jess.” Straightening her shoulders, Lena marched across the floor towards the tall, dark-haired man with his square jaw set in the belligerent jut she had grown to know over the years. “Mr Kent, you’re a long way from Metropolis?”

“I was visiting family when a story dropped right out of the sky.”

“I would say ‘how fortunate’ but I wouldn’t want to be quoted out of context. Do come in. Jess, could you push my next meeting back fifteen minutes for me?”

“Yes, Ms Luthor.” Reaching for her phone to do as Lena asked, Jess set a mental timer ready to act on it the moment their fifteen minutes were up.

**********

Clasping her notebook in her hand, Kara willed herself to give off a more professional but also meek air as she shadowed Clark and followed the coldly, thoroughly professional figure of Lena Luthor into her office. She had thought she was ready to come face to face with Lex Luthor’s sister but even though she had seen pictures of her and studied footage of her, she felt woefully unprepared as her eyes had skimmed over her on the way to honing in on Clark with the intensity of jade laser beams.

“There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I wasn’t aboard the _Venture_ yesterday.”

“Well, that’s why we're here.”

Kara frowned at Clark’s tone and the judgement she could already hear in it. Even though she knew why it was there, it rubbed her the wrong way. Lex had been his enemy, not Lena.

“There was an emergency regarding the planning of a ceremony I’m holding tomorrow,” Lena continued on as though Clark hadn’t interrupted as crossed her office to hang up her jacket and bag. “I’m renaming my family’s company, and I had to cancel.”

“Ah, lucky.”

Kara clutched her notebook tighter, giving her hands something to do other than hitting her cousin for his condescending tone and smile. Even though the chuckle Lena gave as she turned around was less than friendly in response, Kara couldn’t help the way her heart picked up and thudded against her ribs as the light coming in through the floor to ceiling windows caught the arch of her pale throat and the darkness of her hair as the other woman tucked a strand back behind her ear.

“Lucky is Superman saving the day.”

“Not something one expects a Luthor to say.”

Kara whipped her head around to look at him. She was only pretending to be a reporter so she could be there but she was pretty sure he shouldn’t be sounding so confrontational when there were there under the guise of following up a lead on a story. But, he was a real reporter so she went with his lead.

“Right. And Supergirl was there too,” she added, her moment of bravado waning as that brought Lena’s eyes and attention to focus solely upon her. The look as questioning rather than judging, but Kara felt it and she was pretty sure that Clark heard it in the racing of her heart as Lena smiled and walked past her close enough that Kara could smell her perfume and feel the heat of her body. Rao, but she was pretty!

“And who are you exactly?” Lena eyes the blonde woman with interest as she walked across the room. She was pretty. No. She was beautiful despite her efforts to appear meek and mousy in her pastel clothing. Lena could sense a strength within her and ire ran through her because of it. Because of her standing as CEO, Lena had to dress up and armour herself to earn even an ounce of respect from her male counterparts but she knew that some women had to choose the route of least resistance and hid so as not to draw unwanted attention.

“Um…” Kara almost blanked at the question. “I’m Kara Danvers. I’m not with the _Daily Planet_. I’m with CatCo Magazine. Sort of.”

“CatCo? That’s not a publication not known for its hard-hitting journalism. More like ‘high-waisted jeans, yes or no?’.” Lena softened her words with a smile as she poured herself a glass of water and moved to sit behind her desk.

“I’m just tagging along today.”

Lena blinked as Kara’s face naturally broke into a smile that was as bright as the sun outside and seemed wholly familiar.

_‘Are you lost?’_

“Right,” she waved a hand, trying to get her thoughts and emotions back on track. “Can we just speed this _interview_ along?” Lena focused her attention on Clark, letting her sudden ire out on him and not the woman. “Just ask me what you want to ask, Mr Kent. Did I have anything to do with the _Venture_ explosion?”

“Did you?”

“You wouldn’t be asking me that if my last name was Smith,” Lena pointed out coldly.

“Ah, but it’s not. It’s Luthor.”

“There’s some steel under that Kansas wheat.”

Kara’s heart tripped again at the playful smile Lena shot Clark but before she could work out if that palpitation was from the way she said ‘steel’ that seemed like a hint that she knew Clark’s alter ego or just because she wished that wide smile was directed at her.

“It wasn’t always. I was adopted when I was four. And the person that made me feel most welcome in the family was Lex. He made me proud to be a Luthor. And then he went on his reign of terror in Metropolis. Declares war on Superman. Committed unspeakable crimes.”

Kara’s heart broke a little at the small but perceptible crack in Lena’s voice as she mentioned her brother but she started to turn in her chair, presenting them with her back and an opportunity to look closer at the room with their x-ray vision that they both jumped on. But while Kara was sure that Clark was doing so in the hopes of finding something incriminating, Kara found herself hoping for the opposite. Especially when she heard Lena putting all the praise of Clark with her next words.

“When Superman put Lex in jail, I vowed to take back my family’s company.” Lena picked up a silver remote from her desk and pointed it at the smart screen hanging on the wall to her right. The Luthor Corp screen saver switched to a picture of the front of the building as it was then with the old logo stripped from its façade. “To rename it L-Corp. Make it a force for good.”

The softening of Lena’s voice ran through Kara, warming her. Glancing to her side she looked at Clark’s face. Even his expression had softened as he listened to her and looked at the screen but she could see that steel still there in his eyes. The unwillingness to trust even though that was all Kara found herself wanting to do.

“I’m just a woman trying to make a name for herself outside of her family. Can you understand that?”

“Yeah.” Kara found herself nodding and smiling at the earnest plea in Lena’s voice. She knew how Lena felt all too well. No matter what she did, everyone was always comparing her deeds to Superman’s when she was her own person.

Winn had based her super suit on his.

Cat had named her after him… though she had picked out a more juvenile name that Kara was still coming to terms with.

Sometimes she felt as trapped under the shadow of his cape just as surely as Lena obviously felt by the misdeeds of her brother.

Lena’s body relaxed slightly as she looked at her. Her eyes sharpened as she seemed to come to a sudden decision and she stood up from her desk and crossed to some shelving and plucked a USB drive off a rack.

“I know why you’re here. Because a subsidiary of my company made the part that exploded on the _Venture._ This drive contains all the information we have on the oscillator.” Lena placed it in Clark’s waiting hand but it was to Kara that she looked. “I hope it helps you in your investigation.”

“Thank you.”

“Give me a chance, Mr Kent. I’m here for a fresh start. Let me have one.”

“Good day, Ms Luthor.”

Holding back the almost overwhelming urge to hug Lena, Kara adjusted her glasses nervously. “Good day.”

Lena watched the couple leave her office. In all actuality, she knew she was really watching Kara Danvers leave. Clark Kent she had been able to read all too easily as the hostility had been radiating from him and dripping off every word because of Lex’s actions. Kara. Kara was an enigma. A meek exterior of pastel clothing, brilliant blue eyes and jittery hands that had covered a core of steel. But a steel core that had become malleable as she had spoken.

Lena was intrigued to the point that she might have been tempted to investigate further but she was also leery. Something inside her snapped and snarled in the woman’s presence.

“Jess!”

“Yes, Ms Luthor?”

Lena opened her mouth, the request for more details to be found on Kara Danvers on the tip of her tongue trembling right there… but she paused. No. Kara Danvers was a puzzle best left untouched.

“Show my next appointment in as soon as they get here.”

“Of course, Ms Luthor.”

**********

They said nothing to each other as they made their way down through the tall building. Even with Clark’s pointed glance towards the corners of the elevator saying he didn’t trust that there weren’t cameras watching, Kara would hold her tongue as she was too lost in running every word and move of Lena Luthor’s through her mind. Though, to be honest, she was more stuck on how the sun had changed the colour of her eyes and hair and how the bright shade of her lipstick had drawn attention to her mouth than anything.

It wasn’t until they were well away from the building that Clark seemed to decide it was okay to finally speak.

“I didn’t see anything when I x-ray-visioned the room.”

“Yeah, me neither. What do you think?” Kara glanced at his jawline and saw it tense anew.

“I’ve learned through hard experience _not_ to believe _anything_ a Luthor says.”

Kara slapped her thighs in mild frustration. Why couldn’t he see what he did? “Yeah, I know I’m not a reporter or anything, but I kinda believed her,” she admitted.

As Clark answered his phone and started gushing over Lois, Kara risked a glance back and up to the top of the Luthor— the L-Corp building to where Lena Luthor’s office stood. She thought for a moment that she could see the outline of Lena herself at the window but before she could lower her glasses and take a better look, the shadowy figure moved out of sight.

**********

Lena pulled herself away from the window and the distant figures she was watching as she heard Jess’ footsteps returning along with three other pairs. She could already tell by the way they walked and the strength of their aftershave that she didn’t like them and the expression on Jess’ face as she was almost thrust out of the way, told her she had come to the same conclusion.

“Gentlemen,” Lena shook hands with them politely and found herself disliking one more than the others for the way he crowded into her space and blatantly raked his eyes up and down her body and lingered on her breasts. “Please, take a seat.” She waited until they got comfortable, one obviously more so than the others given events that involved their business. “I am sure you are all aware of what happened to the _Venture_—”

“Of course.”

“Terrible thing.”

“Why are we here, Luthor?”

Lena took her time. Leaning back in her seat, she crossed her legs and steepled her fingers together as she looked between the three men in a cold, hard, way that would have made her mother proud.

“You are here because I know something that you apparently don’t or just don’t care about. And that is that the oscillator your company built was the part that exploded.”

“What?”

“No! But—”

Lena’s gaze locked in upon the now silent letch. He still looked far too smug but the edges were fading from it, leaving him looking unattractively tense around the mouth and eyes.

“You are here because I want to know how that part managed to explode when, according to the specs and the money it was sold for, it was supposed to be built from Nth metal? I want to know just _who_ in your company is a terrorist? And you three gentlemen are, right now, the prime suspects.”

She hid a cold smile as Jess moved between them, placing print offs of their suddenly heavily inflated bank accounts before them. Bank accounts that until recently were in the red just as much as the ones of the company they’d been running into the ground until Lena had stepped in and offered them a lifeline.

“Gentlemen, you have a lot of explaining to do. To me and to the police who I am sure are, right now moving on your company and homes with warrants.”

“You bitch! I’ll kill you!”

Lena pushed her chair back and stood up out of reach as the letch lunged out of his chair with fire in his eyes and spittle spraying from his mouth. Thanks to the training she had endured at the hands of her security teams, she was ready to defend herself but Jess moved faster. She swept his legs out from under him and sent him crashing face-first to her desk with a sickening and thoroughly satisfying crunch.

Lena wasn’t sure if the blood that spilt across the surface of her pristine white desk was from his nose or mouth. Both looked equally messed up as he rolled around the floor in agony at Jess’ feet until her heavily muscled and armed security team poured into the office from where they had been waiting, and dragged him and the others out.

“Krav Maga? That skill wasn’t listed on your resume, Ms Huang.”

“Ahh, that’s because there are _some_, that seemed to take me knowing how to defend myself as some kind of threat against their person even though I’ve tried explaining that I would only use it for defence or if touched inappropriately.” Jess left the ‘men’ of her statement remain unspoken but saw the understanding in Lena’s eyes. “I’m the youngest and only girl with three overprotective brothers, Ms Luthor. Two of whom are in the Marines whilst the other is an MMA fighter who runs his own gym and teaches self-defence classes. Tyler taught me all I know after I refused to let them tail me and threaten my dates anymore.”

“They sound like a delight. And I’m glad they taught you well. Thank you. Just to be clear though,” Lena brought her up short before Jess could think to leave the room. “I appreciate what you did, I really do. But I don’t want you thinking it’s your job to throw yourself into harm's way for me. Do you understand me, Jess?”

“But—”

“I mean it, Jess. If anything worse goes down. Your priority is to stay alive. You have a family that obviously adores you. Don’t leave them mourning you needlessly,” Lena begged gently. Her assistants head finally, reluctantly, moved in a nod. “Thank you, Jess. Now, if you don’t mind…” grimacing, she waved a hand to indicate the mess left behind.

“I’ll call the cleaners in right away, Ms Luthor.”

“Thank you, Jess. I’ll be down in my lab working on a project for the rest of the day.” Her fingers itched with the thought of the tinkering ahead. With any luck, she would be finally able to work out why her alien detection device seemed to glitch intermittently the last time she had tested it nearly two months prior and had shown her as being an alien. She had even run DNA tests on herself just to assure herself there was nothing strange about that she didn’t know but it came out as human as anyone else’s and she had tossed the project aside out of frustration while the trial and move too priority.

“Oh! You said your brother teaches self-defence? Is that anywhere within National City?” Getting more training in afterwards couldn’t hurt.

“I’ll send you his details, Ms Luthor,” Jess smiled proudly as she thought about her brother. He was the youngest of them, only a couple of years older than herself and because of that, he had been the easiest of them to convince that she was perfectly capable of defending herself. He had also been beyond delighted as training her to the point where she was able to take two Marines off their feet had also been proof enough that he was a proficient trainer and they had backed his business.

Jess watched as her boss stepped carefully around the blood staining the white carpet and left her office. The top floor was quieter than many within the tall building, its space was taken up by conference rooms and offices for the top-level executives. As she followed Lena out, Jess saw curious eyes lifting, expressions turning cold and judgemental as they watched her sail through their midst’s with more poise than they could ever dream of. Far more than people two or three times her age.

And Jess found it kind of sad.

There was no doubting that Lena Luthor was more than capable in the position of CEO. She was brilliant. Possessing more degrees than most people could even dream of and a mind that was razor-sharp in more than just a book smart way. But, even though she had only known her for a short amount of time, Jess couldn’t help but feel that she should be out there doing all the crazy things that people of her age did. She should be out there, living her life, going to parties, meeting people and making bad decisions. Hell, going home and binge-watching TV would be something compared to living at L-Corp as Lena Luthor seemed to.

As far as Jess had been able to tell, her boss only left the building on business-related matters. Her idea of relaxing was to do what she was heading off to do right then… head into the bowels of L-Corp to one of her ‘secret’ labs to work on her projects and perpetuate that myth going around the junior members of staff that she was some kind of mad scientist.

There was one inconsistency in Lena’s ruthless work ethics. And that had come to light when Jess had first opened up Lena’s appointment ledger online and the physical version kept as a backup. And that was that her precious assistant had pencilled Lena in for three days off a month.

Days that Lena seemed to have no knowledge of.

**********

Kara barely resisted the urge to put on a burst of speed as her second favourite coffee shop in National City came into sight. Just the thought of sinking her teeth into a slice of chocolate pecan pie or a freshly baked doughnut had her mouth-watering.

Alex and J’onn wouldn’t approve but a girl needed to fuel up, especially after already having to put out a fire at an apartment building that morning and helping with a pileup on the freeway. And she had time. She’s made sure of that. Lena Luthor wasn’t due to give her press conference outside of L-Corp for another couple of hours which gave her plenty of time to grab some much-needed calories and get there to try and talk her out of it.

As the DEO under their guise as FBI had already tried to talk to her and had been turned away by her formidable assistant, it was a task that was surely bound to be more difficult than putting out ten fires raging at the same time.

Zipping through the door, Kara dodged around tables, chairs and patrols getting between her and her baked goods with the single-minded determination of a bloodhound locked on a scent.

They were so close! And then disaster struck as she dodged just at the wrong moment and got in the way on the person in front as they turned with their coffee in hand. The coffee jostled and spilt in slow motion and Kara really could have probably done something to save the person from being doused in their drink… if she hadn’t been caught up in the startling green of the eyes of the woman she was supposed to be seeing after her coffee so close to her own.

Lena’s brightly painted lips moved and her brow furrowed but all Kara seemed to be able to do was gawp at her as she drowned in green and, Rao, were her eyes different colours or was it the light?

“Ms Danvers! Are you okay?” Ignoring the dismayed gasps of the servers behind the counter, Lena took the taller woman’s hands in her own and pulled her to the side where it was a little quieter. “Ms Danvers? Please, I would really rather not have to slap your face. That would not be good for my image.”

“Kara.”

“What?”

“My name.”

“Hmm. Are you okay, Kara?”

Kara shivered as Lena’s accent curled around her name and turned it into something wholly unique that she wanted to hear again and again.

“Kara, did you get scolded?” Peeling aside the edges of the coat she was wearing, Lena tried to see if there was any tell-tale stains or dampness. Never had she ever regretted her fondness for plain black coffee until then at the thought that it might have burned her.

“What? Oh! No. No. It didn’t hit me,” Kara quickly stilled Lena’s hands before they could accidentally wander too far and discover her super suit hidden beneath. “But it did you! Oh, Rrr— Shoot!”

Lena blinked in shock as the reporter went from dazed to a whirlwind of motion and she found herself being towed towards the bathrooms at the mercy of Kara’s deceptive speed and strength. She barely had time to signal to her bodyguard that she was okay before the door was closing between them and Kara was tugging on her clothing.

“The last time this happened I was in college and I usually expect to be able to drink a drink and not wear one before going this far, Ms Danvers,” she chuckled. Her meaning hit and, to her delight, Kara’s eyes went wide behind her glasses and her face blushed prettily with colour as she looked down and took note of what her hands were doing.

“It’s Kara,” she reminded her with a shy smile. “Are you okay?” she gestured weakly to where Lena’s once perfect, and probably very expensive blouse, was plastered to the swell of her breasts by a wide stain of coffee. “I am so clumsy! I was paying too much attention to the desserts and not looking where I was going and now I’ve hurt you all because I couldn’t decide if I wanted doughnuts or chocolate pecan pie!”

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay. Do you want to see?” She bit her lip, holding back a chuckle as Kara slapped a hand over her own eyes as she started unbuttoning her blouse. “Kara, I’m wearing a bra. See,” blue eyes peeked over the tops of fingers. “Just pink and sticky.” Lena’s breath caught as the tips of long, slightly calloused fingers brushed across the curve of her breast exposed by the cup of her bra. The air in the small all too public bathroom suddenly felt hot and heady with the promise of something more as those blue eyes lifted from where they were watching the progress of her fingers and stared into her own and then dropped to her lips.

They had met once before, and then not in the best of circumstances, but right there and then, Lena wanted nothing more than to taste the other woman’s lips and feel them upon her own.

“Ms Luthor! Is everything okay?!”

“Yes, Frank! Could you get me a fresh order, plain black coffee for myself, a chocolate pecan pie and a dozen assorted doughnuts and a… what coffee would you like, Kara?”

“Erm, just ask for a Danvers special, they know what I like.”

“You managed to get a coffee named after yourself? I’m not sure if I should be impressed or worried.”

“Probably worried, my sister says it’s a certifiable health hazard in a cup.” Kara blushed and fidgeted with her glasses as Lena let out a laugh that seemed to fill the small room and seep into her body and found a home.

“Did you get that, Frank?”

“Yes, Ms Luthor.”

“And get something for yourself this time, Frank.”

Kara fidgeted with her jacket, trying to unstick her wallet from the lining to pay Lena back but she found her efforts stilled with a touch.

“This one is on me.”

This one? This one? Did that mean she would want more coffee with her some time? Rao!

“Erm, I think technically, the last one was on you too,” she felt beholden to point out with a grimace as she took in the state of Lena’s clothing and absolutely did not look at the creamy skin exposed to her gaze.

“How about you pay me back by drinking with me… as long as you weren’t rushing anywhere! It’s not a demand or anything!”

It was Kara’s turn to still her nervous explosion of words with a touch. “I was actually supposed to be rushing somewhere afterwards.”

“Oh,” Lena started to step back further and started wrapping her walls up around the strangely overwhelming amount of disappointment she was feeling at Kara’s rejection. “Well—”

“I was on my way to L-Corp in the hope that we could talk a little before your press conference,” Kara finished with a smile as Lena’s eyes widened before her brow furrowed a little in regret.

“I’m sorry, I don’t usually give exclusives to the press—”

“I’m not a reporter, Ms Luthor.”

“Lena. If you insist I call you Kara it seems only fair.”

“Lena,” she liked the way her name felt on her tongue. “I’m not a reporter. I just needed to have a word if that’s okay?”

“In that case, how about we take our drinks back to L-Corp and we can talk in comfort there?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ^^^ gif added for no special reason other than... WOW!!
> 
> Much of the dialogue when Clark and Kara meet Lena is familiar. I'll be trying to stay away from that in the future as the story branches away from canon but it was such an iconic meeting that I wanted it to stay the same.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN - As you will be able to tell from the end of the last chapter and the start of this, there will be time jumps. And, while this starts off in season 2 of the show, it will be taking a different path (no Mon-el, yayyy).
> 
> Also, excuse any glaring mistakes this chapter, I really wanted to get this one out but I'm in the middle of a migraine which makes doing pretty much anything hellish so I just ran it through a grammar checker for now until I can give it a better look another day :p

As the elevator doors smoothly opened on the top floor of the L-Corp tower, Kara restrained herself with only one excited bounce onto her toes to release some pent up excitement that barely shifted the elevator before stepping out. The top floor was almost eerily quiet as always as the top executives there conducted their business in hushed tones behind soundproofed walls. It was a balm to Kara’s senses that were almost constantly overworked on the busy floors of CatCo and while out patrolling as Supergirl.

Anywhere else and Kara would have lingered to savour the quiet but, her goal lay at the far end of the building where, despite the expensive soundproofing, she could hear the now familiar steadying beat of Lena’s heart calling to her.

They were coming up on their one-month friendiversary, a date that, despite Alex saying there was no such thing, Kara was claiming from the day they had first met. Even if it had been under trying circumstances as it sounded better than the day she had thrown coffee all over Lena.

Even after a month, Kara still couldn’t quite believe many things about Lena. All of them good. How beautiful and smart she was, how giving she was with her time and money. Those things were a given to anyone that took the time to look. But, it was the things not many people were privy to that drew Kara closer. That bright, toothy smile and rich laugh that Lena seemed to reserve just for her. The way she had of relentlessly teasing her that had Kara utterly beguiled and flustered at the same time.

She was just amazing in every way and Kara couldn’t get enough of being in Lena’s presence. That that was the most unbelievable part… that Lena always had time for her even though she worked relentlessly to the point that there were some nights that she never went home… Not that Kara was spying on her. She had given her unlimited assess to her office… Kara, a cub reporter, had access to Lena Luthor, billionaire CEO who could barely even find the time to eat.

Which was why Kara was there right then.

Carefully shifting the tray of drinks and bags to make it look like there was some kind of an effort to the balancing act, Kara slowed as Jess’ desk came into view.

Kara liked Lena’s assistant. She was fiercely loyal to Lena and had even taken a little dodging to get around that first time until Lena had granted her assess. After that, it had taken some careful bribing of the hard-working assistant with pastries and drinks but Kara felt that the smiles she now got off Jess were more to do with the fact that she got Lena to take a moment to step away from work than anything else.

Right then though, there was a metaphorical cloud hanging over Jess as she tried to get a word in on the call she was taking that had her face looking pinched and angry. Kara always tried not to use her powers for unethical purposes, she really did, but she heard Jess mention Lena and her ears instantly seemed to hone in before she could stop herself.

“Ms Luthor is unavailable—”

“She’ll speak to me.”

“I am under strict instructions that she is not to be disturbed under any circumstances and until Ms Luthor says otherwise, I will not be putting any calls through.”

Kara’s shoulders dropped in disappointment and she started to turn around figuring that meant Lena was too busy for her too. And really, she should stop assuming. But, the quick raising of Jess’ finger pulled her back around. Jess covered the receiver and rolled her eyes as the caller kept on talking.

“Go on in Ms Danvers.”

“Are you sure?”

“Ms Danvers… Kara, the President herself couldn’t get past me to see Ms Luthor right now. You, on the other hand, have full access.” Jess was also selfishly hoping that the sight of Kara would work its magic on her boss and quiet the bad mood that’d had her snapping at everyone.

“Thanks, Jess.” Barely able to contain herself, Kara placed a drink from her tray in front of Jess and a bag with her favoured pastry in it and left her to field the irate person on the other end of the phone.

Stepping up to the solid door to Lena’s office, Kara knocked on it gently. There was a muffled scuffling sound from inside and a tersely snapped order to enter that Kara obeyed. Pushing open the door she stepped inside, her heels sinking into the deep pile of the pale coloured carpet. Lena was sitting behind her desk, her posture stiff and agitated, her red painted lips compressed into a thin line.

“Hey, is this a bad time?”

“For you, darling? Never.” Standing up from her desk, Lena rounded it and all but fell into Kara’s arms for a much-needed hug as soon as her friend put down what she was carrying. She had never been one for showing affection through touch but being around Kara, for who hugs seemed to be as important as breathing, was breaking her of everything she had learned in the Luthor household. Now, Lena craved the contact when it came from Kara and basked in it every chance she could.

Lena basked in the warmth and strength of the contact and the clean scent of ozone and sunshine that always seemed to linger, trapped within the golden strands of her hair and tanned skin. She pressed closer just for a moment, just long enough to catch herself before her lips grazed across Kara’s pulse. Putting her lack of control down to tiredness and headache she had been fighting for a couple of days, Lena pulled away. Mimicking Kara, her hands grazed down surprisingly well-defined biceps and forearms hidden beneath Kara’s typical clothing choice of a pastel cardigan, this one a pretty blue that made her eyes stand out even more, until their fingers touched and clung together a moment longer before they finally created a more acceptable space between them.

“Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”

“Mhm,” Lena dodged away as Kara’s hand started to raise to touch her face. “It’s nothing…” the look in Kara’s suddenly intense gaze screamed that she didn’t believe her and would probably probe to get an answer so Lena decided on the truth. “Really, it’s nothing, I just get headaches,” she sighed.

“Lena!”

“I’ve had them checked out when I was younger and it’s nothing, I just have to listen to my body.”

“And working through it is listening to your body?”

“If it makes sure the board doesn’t sign off on decisions that ruin everything I’m trying to do here or declare me unfit to stand as CEO, then yes,” Lena defended herself sharply.

“You know, I could threaten them for you.” Kara blushed and fidgeted as Lena’s brow arched perfectly as her eyes raked over her cardigan. “Hey, I’m tougher than I look!”

“You were crying over a video of an abandoned kitten the other night, Kara.” Lena pointed out with a soft smiled.

“It was sad, Lena!”

“I don’t doubt that there’s some steel there…” lord knows she’d only just been feeling up the muscles for herself. “You did manage to survive two years as Cat’s assistant after all. But the board is my beast to slay.”

“Fine. But if you never need any help…” there went that eyebrow again. “… I could call on Supergirl for a favour or something.”

“I’m sure she has got better things to be doing than rescuing a Luthor from mean men!” Lena rubbed at her temple and fought down the sudden and unexpected wave of agitation and the honest to god growl that was crawling up her throat at the mention of National City’s resident hero. “I’m sorry,” she apologized profusely. “The pain can sometimes make me a bit testy. No doubt I’ve been beastly to Jess and everyone else today.”

“No, it’s okay.” Gently touching her hand her permission, Kara steered Lena over to the couch and guided her down onto the butter-soft, white leather. “You just need a break. Let me take care of you for a bit… if that’s okay? And for the record… I’m sure Supergirl would be honoured to put anyone in their place for you. I know I would.”

Lena looked down at the hand lying over hers on her thigh. It was a good hand. A strong hand that radiated warmth and comfort with a touch. Turning her hand beneath it to return Kara’s reassuring squeeze, Lena shivered at feel of slight ridges of hardness as callouses brush against her flesh. Her mind wandered, wondering what a reporter could be doing to earn those kinds of callouses and what they would feel like brushing against other areas of her body?

“Are you cold?” Kara shuffled closer, willing the heat of her body to warm her friend as she rubbed at Lena’s shoulders as she put her arm over them. Was shivering normal for a headache? Maybe she should call Alex and check?

“I— Just the cold leather, darling,” Lena somehow managed to croak out as she gave in to the comfort Kara was offering her. “What did you get us for lunch today? Nothing too sinful I hope? I don’t have time to up my spin class again this week.”

“Not like you need them anyway, Lena. You’re already perfect.”

“Mother would disagree with everything you just said but you are an excellent balm to my fragile Luthor ego, Kara.”

“Well, your mother is obviously blind if she thinks otherwise,” Kara snorted as she pulled their lunches out of the bag and set them on the low table before the couch. “Here, that nasty green monstrosity you claim you like.”

“It’s kale, Kara. It isn’t poisonous.” Taking the lid off her salad, Lena held it out for Kara to see.

“I’m taking no chances so keep it away from my potstickers.” Kara beamed, feeling ridiculously proud of herself at the rich laugh that bubbled up from Lena as she pulled herself and her precious container of food away from the green leafy horror Lena insisted on eating. “The only green thing I like is your eyes.” She blushed as she realised what she had admitted.

“My, you are being exceptionally good for my ego today, Ms Danvers. Maybe you should stop by and stroke it more often.”

“Ohhh, eat your salad.” Grabbing up a potsticker with her chopsticks, Kara crammed it into her mouth whole and tried to eat it around the grin on her face as she watched Lena eating her kale abomination with careful, precise bites.

**********

The sweet scent of Kara lingered long after the woman had left her office in an after image embedded deep in her olfactory system just as surely as the warmth and feel of her was locked into her muscles and bones after the lingering hug Kara had given her. A hug that had been broken up by a series of buzzing and chimes and beeps from Kara’s phone that had her apologising profusely about having to rush without cleaning up even as she rushed for the door with the question of ‘lunch tomorrow?’ trailing behind her.

There was a lightness to Lena’s steps and her heart as she cleaned up the many takeaway containers and tidied her office. For the first time in several days, she felt energised, ready to settle down and tackle her work. But, as she returned to her desk and sat in the imposing but not altogether comfy, executive chair, she found that work was the last thing on her mind.

Spinning in her chair, she faced the window and looked out across the sprawling city with the sun and full moon playing peekaboo around the towering skyscrapers that dominated the view. Despite the two, or was it already up to three, attempts on her life since moving there, and the cloud of the Luthor name that shadowed her every move just waiting for her to fall, National City still felt like the right decision no matter what Lillian said.

There was nothing for her in Metropolis any more. Nothing but hatred and bad memories. In National City, there was a fresh start to be made for herself and, fortunately, it was something Supergirl seemed willing to give her so far despite what Lex had tried to do to the world and her family. The Kryptonian, even though she was unaware of it, was a part of Lena’s plans. She was Lena’s measure to if she was doing good. Her failsafe in case all the hatred she had grown up surrounded by won out against her desire to do good.

“Jess, is my afternoon still clear?”

“As you instructed, Ms Luthor,” Jess clarified with barely a glance down at the pad in her hands. “You’ve had several calls today but there is nothing that can’t wait. Erm, your mother was the most frequent caller.”

Lena’s breath caught and she waited with bated breath for Jess to suggest or demand she call her back or inform her that she was waiting outside.

“I put her off the best as I could but she doesn’t seem the kind that will let that put her off for long. I’ve ordered security to watch for her on the front desk. Would you like me to do the same at your penthouse?”

“Yes, if you would. And thank you, Jess. She can be… persistent, so thank you for handling her so well.”

“Any time, Ms Luthor.” The only time anyone had made it past her it was Kara Danvers with her surprising turn of speed and Jess was determined to never let it happen again, in person or on the phone.

“I’m going to spend some time down in the labs. If anyone comes looking for me—”

“I will tell them that you are unavailable.”

As Jess left her office, a flash of colour streaking between the buildings caught Lena’s eyes. Curious, she turned on the TV and flicked between the news channels until she came to the local one showing shaky footage from down near the harbour where a hulking alien with grey skin that looked as thick as armour plating was ramming it’s horned head and massive fists into vehicles and tossing them around like toys.

Cape whipping around her, Supergirl landed between the alien and its next target and blocked its punch. The footage wasn’t clear enough to pick up what Supergirl said but it obviously didn’t go over so well as the alien rammed its head into her and she went flying back but recovered quickly and righted herself in the air.

Any other time, Lena would have continued to watch but the headache was coming back, bringing with it a wave of inexplicable anger that Lena could only put down to the brightness of the screen and a sensitivity to the flicker rate of the shaky footage.

The reflection of the moon, pale against the brightness of the sun, filled the blackness of the screen as she turned it off. Lena felt itchy in her own skin the longer she looked at it. She scratched at her arms, her blunt nails digging into the fine silk of her blouse as she tried to get rid of the feeling of something moving and pressing beneath the surface of her skin.

Lena forced herself to stop as she heard the pop of threads and spotted droplets of blood seeping through the silk.

She needed to get down to the labs. Hopefully, some work in the quiet and familiar setting she had wanted to spend her life working in, rather than been stuck in an office dealing with entitled businessmen would help to ease her headache.

**********

Lena sighed in frustration as she watched the amber liquid spinning in the crystal cut tumbler as she tipped it back and forth in agitation. Her hopes that working in the lab on her alien detection device would calm her had been dashed upon the rocks of failure once again.

She could have _sworn_ that she had figured it out just the week before but once again, it was glitching out when she used it on herself.

Tossing back the last mouthful of expensive, aged whiskey with little regard of anything other than the burn as it scorched a path down her throat to join the rest she had already consumed. Lena eyed the bottle for a moment but put her glass down carefully and pushed it away. Any more and she knew she would end up spending the night on the office couch… again, and that would definitely not improve her headache.

Gathering together her belongings, Lena swallowed her guilt for keeping him up so late and phoned down to let her driver, Frank, know that she was ready to head back home to her lonely apartment.

A flash of red and blue outside the window caught her eye before she could leave and Lena turned to watch as the hero flew across the city at a more sedate pace. She stopped mid-flight, her body righting and turning in place to face the L-Corp building, a trick of the light making it seem as though Supergirl almost lifted her hand slightly as though to wave to her before she changed her mind and flew closer instead.

Lena wanted to finish turning off her office lights and make a break for it. The burning waves of anger and pain in her head demanded it. But, in the end, good manners and the finest etiquette lessons the Luthor money could buy to combat her ‘poor start at life in Ireland’, won out and she walked back across her office and opened the doors to her balcony as Supergirl gently touched down upon it.

“Working late, Ms Luthor?”

“I could ask the same of you, Supergirl,” Lena pointed out as Supergirl seemed to struggle to work out where she wanted to put her hands and ended up fidgeting with the pleats in her short skirt.

“Life of a hero, I’m afraid.”

“And of a CEO apparently. Fortunately, the blows I have to dodge are more of the verbal kind… apart from the quarterly assassination attempts.” Supergirl’s lips pursed at that attempt of humour, a worried frown creasing her brow. “Sorry, the Luthor household tended to cultivate a gallows sense of humour. I saw a bit of your fight near the harbour earlier… I take it you were triumphant against him in the end?”

“Eventually. She packed quite a punch.”

“She!? Well, that’s what I get for assuming gender.”

“Me too,” Kara grimaced. “I told him he needed to calm down so we could help him and WHAM!” She rubbed her chest ruefully. “Are you heading home soon? I could give you a lift if you want?”

Lifting a hand, Lena backed up a step as her head swum at the very thought of being so high above the ground. “I was just heading home but I think I would prefer to keep my feet on ground level tonight.”

“Is your head still bad?” Before she could even realise what she was doing to stop herself, Kara brushed her thumb across Lena’s temple, dropping it as she saw Lena’s green eyes grow wide and startled at the sudden show of intimacy that was beyond anything she and Supergirl had. “Erm, Kara Danvers and I talked earlier and she mentioned you weren’t feeling well.”

“Oh, she did, huh?”

“I— Eh- She was worried about you.”

“That’s sweet of her. It’s not as good as I was hoping it would be by now,” Lena admitted. “I’m sure a good night’s sleep will help though.”

“Then I’d best let you get back to getting that.” Gently pushing off from the balcony, Kara let herself drift slowly upwards. “Goodnight, Ms Luthor.”

“Goodnight, Supergirl.”

Lena waited until the superhero was far enough away before attempting to unlock her knees to make her way back inside. Sweat broke out across her brow and down her back with the first step and her nails clawed at the frame of the balcony door. She felt like her blood was on fire.

“Ms Luthor!”

“Thought, ye’d gone home, Jess?” Lena blinked as she tried to focus on the face of the person stopping her from planting face-first on the carpet.

“I left five hours ago. Saw your lights on and decided to come up and evict you from your office.”

“Awfully bold of you. Remind me to give you a raise.”

“How about you pay me back by letting me call your doctor so she can check you out?”

“Counteroffer; help me to my car and I’ll give you an extra week’s paid leave a year?”

“And leave you alone unsupervised for a week?” Jess snorted. “How about you take the time off when I do?” The chances of that were in the negative but that was beside the point as just talking was helping to keep Ms Luthor focussed on putting on foot in front of the other. By the time they reached the ground floor and were within sight of her car, she was walking pretty much unaided and insisted that she let Frank drive her home too.

“Migraine coming on again, Ms Luthor?” he asked sympathetically. “There are no reports of any traffic problems tonight so we’ll soon have you home.”

“Thank you, Frank.”

“If you don’t mind me saying, Ms Luthor, you need to take better care of yourself… take some time off and just unwind.”

“Are you two ganging up on me?”

“Just offering sound advice, Ms Luthor. And maybe if you’re hearing it from different people you should think about it?” He smiled and gave Ms Luthor’s assistant a wink as Ms Luthor settled in the back of the town car with a rough grumble beneath her breath and closed her eyes without further comment or protest.

**********

“Damn it! We’re going to have to do it tomorrow.” Turning from his pretend perusal of, what he hadn’t realised until then was a risqué lingerie shop window display, he watched the tail lights of the Luthor’s town car turning the corner at the end of the street.

“What about the apartment? We could try that again?”

“And how close did we get the last couple of times? That place is locked down tighter than Fort Knox.”

“We could force—”

“And then it would be all over the news quicker than anything and you know the orders, this is supposed to be kept quiet. No, we do this tomorrow. Get in. Grab her. This is our one chance to show Cadmus what we can do and we can’t fuck it up! Once we’re in with them, we’re golden!”

**********

From where she flew high above the city, Kara kept a careful eye on everything beneath her as she always did. But, it was the car leaving L-Corp and travelling across the city, and the sound of Lena’s heart within it, that had the majority of her attention. Both Lena and Alex would give her matching scathing looks if they knew what she was doing but, that was why she was so far up in the sky with the pale glow of the moon shining around her where they wouldn’t know that she was abusing her powers to make sure her friend got home safely.

And once she was, Kara tilted back her head and looked up at the moon. It was nearly full; just a barely perceptible slither remaining untouched by the sun. That meant, according to all the books and movies that Kara had consumed, that tomorrow was the night when her werewolf friend was the most likely to show up. But, as Alex and everyone else had gone to great lengths to try and convince her that werewolves were a myth, Kara secretly went out most nights before retiring to check around the hills just to be sure.

So far it had been a whole month of nothing, but Kara wasn’t about to give up hope. She could feel it. Tonight was going to be the night… or maybe tomorrow.

Soon.


	5. Chapter 5

Jess looked up from her careful appraisal of the secret appointment ledger and its pencilled in dates that were worryingly tying in with Lena’s migraines, to see a hand that was becoming all too familiar, carefully placed it’s offering of the finest coffee Noonan’s had to offer and a bag from Big Belly Burger just within her line of sight. Cocking a judgemental eyebrow at Kara’s brightly smiling face, Jess carefully opened the bag and looked inside to see what Kara had picked her out for lunch.

“Hmm,” she hummed in pleasure, “your offering is accepted. You may enter.”

Jess somehow managed by the skin of her teeth to contain her laugh if not her smile as the living, breathing, ball of energy and sunshine, that was Kara Danvers bounced on her toes like an over-excited child and somehow managed to smile even brighter. She was sure that Kara was going to make a rush for the door to Lena’s office before she exploded with happiness, but the other woman took a step and suddenly grew so still Jess wondered if one of the many strange experiments from one of the laboratories that lay floors below had gotten loose and turned the reporter to stone. And, oh lord, she didn’t want to have to explain to Ms Luthor why there was suddenly a Kara Danvers statue right outside her door!

“Kara?”

Kara’s head turned and Jess was suddenly left gasping for breath at the realisation that there was a _lot_ more to the woman than there first seemed as a quiet, otherworldly, strong-as-steel, power seemed to radiate from her.

_Supergirl?_

“Ms— Ms Danvers?”

Broad shoulders rounded off and her body shrunk in stature as Kara turned and lifted a hand to fiddle with the small, dark-rimmed glasses perched on her nose and suddenly there was Kara facing her again. A Kara with concern in her blue eyes as she glanced at Lena’s door and sank even, white teeth into her bottom lip.

“Is she okay today, Jess?”

“Worse, actually,” Jess sighed sadly. She carefully closed the appointment ledger, sealing the puzzle written in pencil away to be solved later. Preferably after a word with HR to see if they could help her track down Ms Luthor’s former assistant.

“Do you think I should?” Kara waved a hand in a vague leave gesture.

“Absolutely not!” Jess grimaced in apology as her voice rose sharper than she intended. “Ms Danvers… Kara. I honestly think Ms Luthor only came in at all today through a combination of determination and the knowledge that she would get to see you for lunch.”

“Well, that’s silly. She could have called and I could have gone round to visit.”

“If you want to tell Ms Luthor she’s being silly, go right ahead.” All vague thoughts that Kara Danvers was somehow Supergirl were wiped away as the other woman swallowed just as nervously as anyone else with a healthy survival instinct would at the idea. “Exactly. Now, go in, Ms Luthor will see you now.”

Jess regretted ever seeing _that_ movie but she had to admit it was fun twisting that line every now and then to see who reacted to it. Apparently, surprisingly, Kara Danvers was one of them if the widening of her eyes behind her glasses and the blush stealing its way across her cheeks was any indication.

**********

Kara was tempted to use her powers to check on Lena first, but with Jess watching her like a very protective mama hawk, despite the burger and coffee to tempt her away from her duties, she knocked quietly on the solid wooden door and used them only enough to listen for Lena’s soft voice cracking slightly with pain, calling for her to enter.

Opening the door just enough, Kara paused long enough to give Jess an awkward wave that morphed into a thumbs-up gesture along the way, and then she slipped through the gap and quietly closed the door behind her. Even if Jess hadn’t warned her, Kara would have known that Lena was still hurting just by the pinched expression on her too pale face, but it didn’t stop her wayward heart from swooping and soaring as Lena’s face broke into a smile of greeting and the pain melted away.

“Kara!”

The way her name sounded as it spilt from Lena’s perfectly painted lips had a violent shiver running up Kara’s spine and almost made her trip over herself on the way to fall into Lena’s arms for their usual hug. Burying her nose shamelessly against her, Kara breathed her in. Of all the hugs she had received since she had arrived on Earth, Lena’s ranked right up there with any she had gotten from Alex. Alex _knew_ she could receive stronger hugs whereas Lena just seemed to know and, unlike most people, she wasn’t shy about giving longer hugs that managed to feel thrilling and like coming home at the same time.

After a night of futile searching around the hills, and a morning being dressed down by J’onn and Alex for that and for causing a bit of property damage flying too close to a building. Which was totally unfair as she had been fighting an alien at the time! Kara felt like she deserved an even longer hug than usual from her friend.

As Lena made the microscopic move Kara was dreading. The shift of muscles and breathing that said she was about to withdraw her touch, Kara ran a hand oh so gently down Lena’s spine and groaned softly in protest. She hadn’t meant to do it. Not really. And it was so subtle that she couldn’t have faulted Lena if she had missed it and continued to withdraw her touch, but Lena relaxed back into the curve of her body and tightened her arms as though she was craving the contact just as much.

There was just them. Their bodies melded together so perfectly from breasts to hips as their breathing evened out and fell into sync, that Kara lost track of where she ended and Lena began.

“Rough day, darling?”

Murmuring quietly from the back of her throat, Kara nodded her head without even lifting it from where it had nestled in against Lena’s shoulder.

“Want me to call and verbally kick Snapper’s arse for you?”

Kara smiled contentedly, warmth flowing through her at the protective note in Lena’s voice and with just how adorably her lilting Irish accent shone through as she said arse and not ass. And then she remembered that, for once, Snapper Carr _wasn’t_ the direct cause of her woes and that Lena was probably not at all kidding with her offer to call and berate him.

“I— eh— That’s okay. Nothing I can’t handle.” Reluctantly lifting her head from its comfortable location, Kara adjusted her glasses out of habit more than because they had become eschew and gave Lena what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “But, can I hold you to the offer of kicking his erm— butt for me later in the week if he gets any worse?”

“Always.” Smiling softly, her headache forgotten for the first time in hours, Lena gestured for Kara to sit down while she finished getting ready for their lunch date. “Where are we heading to today?”

“I was thinking, if it’s okay with you, we could go to that Italian place you like? I know you like the, ugh, salads there… but I thought I could have another shot at persuading you to eat something that is far tastier than one of _those _green monstrosities.”

“Salads _are_ tasty,” Lena grinned at the grimace on Kara’s face. “I will get you to try something healthy at least once in your life, Kara Danvers.”

“I eat salads!” Kara defended herself.

“A bit of lettuce on a burger does not a salad make,” Lena teasingly admonished. “Especially when you take most of it off.”

“It makes the bun soggy, Lena!” Kara whined. “And hey, they put that other _thing_ on too.”

“Other thing?”

“You know the salad thing… It’s red?”

“You mean the tomato?” Groaning softly, Lena shook her head in despair as Kara sat opposite her desk looking far too pleased with herself. “I would be proud of you… if I hadn’t seen you slipping those off the burgers too. I don’t know how you manage to stay as healthy as you do with your horrendous eating habits. But… Italian it is. I might even let you talk me into a dessert if you’ll help me finish it so I don’t have to do another extra spin class this week.”

“I would be happy to help,” Kara licked her lips at the thought of what she might be able to persuade Lena to try. “Don’t know why you would have to do any classes at all though. You’re already perfect.”

Before it could even do more than dawn on Kara as to what she had said, she was hit with a bigger problem that had her afraid she was going to comically out herself as Supergirl by sneezing hard enough to blast Lena’s expensive white desk out through the windows. She somehow managed to contain it in time behind one hand while the other crushed one arm of the chair she was sitting in, but only just a little bit as it clenched to stop it flying back across the office in the process.

When she had managed to unblock her ears from containing her sneeze, it was to find Lena looking at her with an intent, quizzical gaze with the wand of her expensive perfume poised above the delicate skin of the inside of her wrist.

“I’m sorry,” Kara pushed her glasses back up her nose from where her hastily contained sneeze had left them. “Erm, strong scents can be a bit much sometimes,” she explained sheepishly. “Not that your perfume is too strong! I love the way you smell!” _Rao!_ “I mean… you always smell _so_ good…” Blushing hard, Kara fought the urge to slap a hand over her face.

Working her way through Kara’s adorable rambling and blush filled explanation, Lena followed her glance towards her wrist. “Oh… Oh!” Quickly, she shoved the glass wand back in the bottle and screwed it tightly shut before tossing the whole thing into the waste bin like it was a grenade with the pin pulled and not an expensive bottle of perfume.

“You should have said something before,” Lena admonished Kara gently as she studiously wiped her wrists and throat clean of the heavy scent.

“You didn’t have to—” Kara spluttered out once she managed to reel her tongue back into her head and drag her eyes back up from tracking the path of the unscented wipe Lena was dipping into the generous cleavage the cut of her blouse was showing in an effort to wipe up the perfume she had already put there. Kara was pretty sure she couldn’t remember seeing Lena dab it there in the first place but she wasn’t so far gone as to say anything and reveal that she might have a fondness of not objectifying, never that, but appreciating how good Lena looked in that blouse.

“Nonsense, darling,” Lena waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not going to have my best friend bothered by anything like that.” Smiling, she leaned over the desk and held her wrist out, inviting Kara closer. “Is that okay for you now or shall I wash more thoroughly?”

Before common sense could prevail, Kara found herself leaning over, her nose brushing against the delicate flesh of Lena’s wrist as she breathed in the usual light scent of her skin and the remainder of the body wash she had used that morning. There were no scents on Earth that matched completely what she remembered from Krypton, but right then, Lena came as close as anything had to reminding her of her favourite flowers.

Kara’s eyes flew open, only realising as she did so that they had drifted closed in the first place. She could feel the heat rising up like a tide, spreading a blush across her cheeks as she looked back along the length of Lena’s outstretched arm and her eyes drowned in the darkening depths of Lena’s eyes.

Usually, her eyes were a crystal clear green that sometimes drifted more towards grey or blue, depending on her mood, but right then they’d darkened to a forest green that reminded Kara of walking through the woods near the Danvers home in Midvale and looking up through the sun-dappled leaves.

White teeth sank into the pillow of Lena’s bottom lip, the resulting flare of heat and longing that ran through Kara jolted her out of her stupor. Until then she hadn’t known it was possible to feel such jealousy but she wanted nothing more right then for it to be _her_ teeth softly sinking into Lena’s flesh. She wanted to pull a litany of gasps and moans from between them, and gorge herself upon them as much as she wanted to fill Lena with her own.

Blushing furiously, she released Lena’s hand, missing the warmth of it instantly as she sat back in the seat as far away as she could get from temptation without super speeding or flying out of Lena’s office. Reminding herself that she needed to be ‘normal’ right then, she fidgeted with her glasses.

“Was—” swallowing heavily, Lena cleared her throat. “Was that better?”

“Hmm?” Kara blushed even harder as Lena gave a pointed glance at her wrist that felt suggestive in a way Kara couldn’t quite grasp. “You didn’t have to go to that trouble— but,” she shuffled in her seat as Lena’s shapely eyebrow climbed demandingly. “Yes,” she relented, “that is better. You always smell so good I don’t know why you even use anything at all. Oh!” Groaning at Lena’s chuckle, Kara sank down in her chair as she realized what her runaway tongue had revealed again.

“Well, that’s nice to know. Thank you, Kara,” Lena smiled teasingly. “The truth is that I prefer not to use anything beyond a light body spray, hopefully, that isn’t too strong for you? Today though I’ve got a meeting with my mother after we’ve had lunch and the most expensive perfume is a surprisingly effective shield against the slings and arrows of her snobbery.”

“She sounds like she’s—” _Terrible! Awful!_ “—the worst.” Kara held her stronger opinions trapped behind the cage of her teeth and settled for a wave of her hand rather than offend her friend.

“Oh, believe me, she’s worse than that,” Lena laughed at Kara’s grimace. “I wouldn’t have agreed to see her at all, but she went to all the trouble of cloning my friend, Jack’s phone so I would fall for it and answer her call.”

“What?! That can’t be legal?” She would be checking with Alex on that! Maybe she could use her fake FBI cover and threaten her for Lena?

“Definitely not. But, enough of her, I’m looking forward to spending some time with National City’s best reporter. That means you, Kara,” she stated firmly as Kara’s expression went on a journey from quizzical to disbelief to an ‘aww shucks’ that had her blushing and releasing a deep laugh that exposed the long line of her throat and the chiselled line of her jaw to Lena’s avid gaze as she threw back her head.

Kara stood up as she saw Lena rise gracefully from her seat behind her desk. With a quick adjustment with her foot, Kara managed to snag her chair and stopped it from sailing back across Lena’s office as she stood up a little too forcefully in her eagerness to spend time with Lena and satisfy her hunger.

She waited at the door, watching carefully for the slightest sign that Lena’s head was hurting as she collected her jacket and purse but her smile was as warm, enticing, and holding just a hint of mischief as she closed the space between them. The warmth of Lena’s hand radiating heat against the small of her back and through her body as she guiding her from the office almost made her melt into a puddle with how tender it was and not possessive how it would have felt if a man had done the same.

Lena glanced at Kara as the elevator door slid shut and saw the tell-tale signs of discomfort tightening the corners of her mouth and jaw. Her throat worked in what looked as though it was a dry swallow as the numbers slowly started ticking down. Their relationship had never progressed to where they talked about trauma and fears but Lena was betting that Kara suffered from claustrophobia.

“So, tell me, what story has Snapper got you working on this time?”

Blue eyes slowly flickered away from the floor numbers and looked at her blankly for a moment before they cleared and locked onto her fully as Kara anchored herself to her and what she had asked.

“Oh… erm… mostly fluff pieces as usual. Though, he has been hinting that I should maybe have a word with a genius, tech wizard, CEO type as a source for a piece. Know anyone that might fit that description.”

“Hmm… I would suggest Maxwell Lord but he seems to have gone missing.”

“Jerk… Erm, he was a jerk… Maxwell was,” Kara blustered as Lena’s eyebrow climbed obviously questioning why she would have such a strong opinion about the man. “Alex went out with him once!”

“Alex? Your sister?” Her obviously gay sister.

“Yep… It was for a case so we don’t talk about that anymore.”

“He was kind of obnoxious the few time I met him. Brilliant but obnoxious. Are you sure she didn’t bury him in the desert?”

“How do you know about the dee—?” Kara covered up her almost slip about the DEO desert facility with a fake coughing fit that died off quickly as a thought suddenly came to her. “Hey, do you know if wolves like deserts?”

“Wolves?” Lena blinked at the question. “Well… if memory serves the Mexican Wolf, _Canis lupus baileyi_, is indigenous to the Southwestern Deserts and then, of course, there is the Arabian Wolf, _Canis lupus Arabs_.”

“Of course,” Kara smiled as Lena gestured wildly with her hands as she reeled off facts and figures about their ranges as though it was a perfectly normal thing to discuss.

“The Gray Wolf, _Canis lupus_, is the species native around here there… or, they would have been. Has there been a sighting? One could have escaped from one of the sanctuaries.”

“Alex mentioned there was a sighting but I don’t think this one came from any sanctuary.”

“Hmm, could be a wolf-dog hybrid,” Lena shrugged. “I’ve heard that some people like to live close to the edge and breed as much wolf in as possible so they are bigger, stronger and act more like a wolf. Don’t know why they can’t be satisfied with a perfectly good shelter dog or a golden retriever.” She cast a look in Kara’s direction as she bounced excitedly and grabbed her hand as the doors finally slid open on the ground floor.

Eyes follow them as they cross the vast lobby area. Lena is all too aware of every single pair of eyes even though she tried to act as though she doesn’t. She was used to the looks of hatred and anger. It had followed her all of her life and only increased when Lex’s sins had trickled down and landed on her shoulders for her to atone for. How to deal with those looks had been drilled into her almost as soon as she had walked into the Luthor mansion: _Head up! Eyes to the front, wretched child! Luthor’s don’t notice people beneath them, Lena!_

With Kara at her side though, her hand still towing her along faster than was probably really safe for the kind of heels she had on, Lena was confronted with a different kinds of looks directed their way. Looks of curiosity and sometimes ones of envy and ones that almost looked fondly upon them. All of which she easily put down to the power of Kara and her bubbly personality.

“Slow down, Kara,” Lena chuckled softly as she finally managed to pull Kara to a halt. “These shoes are designed for intimidation, not comfort or stability while running through the streets.”

Kara glanced down at the dizzyingly high heels Lena was wearing and became engrossed for a long moment trying to work out if the things it did for Lena’s already perfect calf muscle was really worth the pain they must cause. “I could give you a piggyback ride if you want?” she offered cheekily.

“As tempting as that sounds,” Lena responded as dryly as she could in the face of Kara’s beaming smile, “how about we just get Frank to drive us? Means we’ll have more room for leftovers once I finally manage to fill you up,” she sweetened the pot.

“Bold of you to assume there will _ever_ be any leftovers, Ms Luthor. I’m warning you, people have been underestimating how much I can eat for years.”

“Oh, game on!”

**********

Rubbing her temples with trembling fingers, Lena stared almost blind with pain at the full moon hanging so low above the city. It looked so big and full that she felt sure she could touch it if she just reached up enough. Which she knew as a scientist and a rational human being was impossible, but that was just the way her mind was working right then as fractured thoughts tumbled around her brain. Disjointed and scattered.

Her time with Kara had been a balm to her soul but as soon as she’d had to leave and Lena had returned to her office, the full weight of her migraine had returned tenfold.

The arrival of her mother and her typically acerbic comments and thinly veiled threats hadn’t helped either. Thankfully for Lena’s peace of mind, she had been saved by Supergirl. And she would probably feel bad for saying that once she was free of her headache but right then, all Lena could feel was thankful for whatever citywide emergency it was that had led to the Kryptonian landing on the balcony her mother had been in the process of berating her for having installed, to tell them they needed to evacuate the building.

Her mother had stormed off after shooting some dangerous glowers at the departing superhero that had Lena distrusting her intentions in National City even more, and Lena had been left alone. Or, as alone as one could be while standing around in one of the designated shelters crammed in with hundreds of loud, terrified people while they waited hours for the all-clear.

At least L-Corp had escaped the emergency for once. Given the target in the shape of the ‘L’ on its façade, that was something of a miracle. One that she was thankful for even if a part of her that was just a massive ball of migraine wished she had just stayed in her office the whole time.

She’d sent everyone home, even Jess after much protesting from her assistant. Everything felt too loud and sharp to the point that the click of the aircon in an office on the other side of the floor and the sound of traffic in the streets far below felt like it was ripping her body and soul to shreds. She wanted to go home and rest in the quiet there but moving from her desk to the couch was beyond her never mind navigating the elevator or any of the other steps that would get her home.

She needed peace and quiet.

She needed Kara.

Almost unbidden, her hand moved across her desk and found her cell. The brightness of the screen felt like rusty knives against her brain that brought with it an intense wave of nausea… that dissipated at the sound of Kara’s voice.

**********

Kara nearly dropped her phone and lost it amongst the trees she had been flying over as she looked at the selfie she had insisted they take to accompany the contact details. The image that went with Alex’s was all exaggeratedly gruff and professional… but only because Alex had threatened her and somehow locked that one in place after she had seen the one Kara had been using of her with her head back snoring and drooling on her couch. The picture of Lena was of the woman _she_ knew; all softness and that beautiful smile that brightened Kara’s heart instead of the professional headshot she had tried to insist Kara use.

Hovering in place to cut down on the wind noise, she hurriedly connected the call before Lena could change her mind.

“Lena?”

“Huh— Hi.”

Even though she didn’t need to, Kara clasped the phone closer to her ear to stop herself from flying straight to her friends' side as she listened to the raggedness of her breathing.

“Are you okay?”

“Better— better for hearing your voice,” Lena admitted softly. “My head.” She swallowed in an effort to calm her thoughts. “Got bad after the shelter. Much better now.”

“Do you want me to come—?”

“No. I don’t want to disturb your night. Could you stay on the line with me for a bit though?” Lena bit her lip nervously as she waited for what felt like the longest second in her life for Kara’s answer.

“Of course. And it wouldn’t be a bother if you need me to come to you. Never think that, Lena.”

“Thank you. What are you doing tonight? Hope I didn’t disturb you on a hot date or anything?”

“Phhh, me? Naw. I’m just paaaa…” Kara looked around at the vast empty landscape of the mountains she had been patrolling in an effort to find her wolf… Which were all things she couldn’t explain to Lena. “…picking up a coffee.”

“A coffee? Really, caffeine this late at night? Kara, your drinking habits are as bad as your eating ones.”

“Hey, I didn’t hear you complain about my recommendation about desert earlier.”

“I have to admit. You were right, that tiramisu was one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.”

“One of the best? Lena Luthor, I challenge you to find anything better.”

Lena could think of one thing... one person… in particular that she was sure would taste much better but for the sake of propriety and their friendship, she bit down on that thought before it could find voice and ruin everything they had.

“Fine, you’re… Hold on one second, Kara.”

“Lena?” Kara pressed the phone closer to her ear. Usually, such a request would have had her dimming her powers and putting on some hold music in her mind to give Lena some privacy but, there had been a hint of something in Lena’s voice.

“Hello! Who's there? I swear to god, mother if that’s you again? I thought I made myself perfectly clear enough earlier…”

Closing her eyes, Kara tracked Lena’s progress around her office simply by the noises that were coming through the phone she had left on her desk. The quiet but determined footsteps. The rustle of the door brushing across the thick pile of the carpet as it opened sharply.

“Who the hell are you? I’m going to have to ask you to leave. You can call and make an appointment—”

Sharp, metallic clicks that Kara was all too familiar with from her time at the DEO and facing off against thugs armed with guns had Kara’s eyes flying open.

“Shut up right now! You’re coming with us.”

The sounds of scuffling were all but drowned out by the frantic racing of Kara’s heart and the rushing, roar of air parting around her body as she flew as fast as she could towards the city. Teeth gritting, fists clenching, she pushed harder, fighting the tug of her cape where it pulled against her shoulders as she pulled sharp turns and swooped up over the tops of building with inches to spare.

The whole journey from the mountains and across the city to the towering, glass building of L-Corp was over in a matter of seconds even though it felt like it had taken several lifetimes. Finally, it was there before her. All she had to do was round the building to get to the balcony of Lena’s office and…

Her heart froze as she heard the sharp retort of a gun firing and saw a body tumbling backwards over the edge of the balcony.

“Lena!”

Kara raced forward.

And froze. Her body dropping several feet in shock at what she was seeing.

Instead of falling, the figure was creating a cascade of shards of glass that rained down on the ground far below as massive claws dug into reinforced windows and ripped them apart as it slid down through floor after floor as though it was their intention all along.

Kara had been searching the wilderness for a month only to find the wolf she had been looking for in the most unexpected of places.

Kara had felt fear before, many times. Enough that she could recognise it easily as the wolf slowed its descent until it was hanging there between floors. Its amber eyes flashed dangerously as it rubbed at its chest with its free hand and locked in on her. Ears flattened back and white teeth sparkling wickedly as lips curled back in a threatening snarl that Kara could feel vibrating her body like a tuning fork that screamed at her to _run away_!

She couldn’t!

Lena needed her help!

And she couldn’t leave her city to face the damage a werewolf could do!

But, Lena needed her help!

Kara’s brief moment of floundering was cut short as the werewolf suddenly, unbelievably, launched herself off the building in a suicidal leap right for her. Darting forward, Kara wrapped her arms around the massive furred body as best as she could and stopped its plunge to the unforgiving streets below.

Her efforts obviously weren’t appreciated though as seconds later she felt claws raking across her back and teeth sinking deep into her shoulder. Deep enough and hard enough that she cried out as pain lanced through her as they pierced her usually pretty much invulnerable skin and blood trickled down in rivulets beneath her suit.

Its growl vibrated through Kara’s shoulder as the wolf cinched in her bite, her teeth worrying at her like a dog with a bone. Instinct told Kara to push the creature away as fast as she could but… doing so would put normal humans at risk and if it could bite through her skin, they would be ripped clean in half by them.

Almost blind with pain, Kara retraced her flight across the city until there was nothing but the moon above empty land for miles around and the trees she crashed into as the wolf found a particularly nauseous spot to sink her teeth into and threw off her landing.

“Crap! Ow!” Kara looked from the blood dripping from her fingers to the wolf still snapping and snarling at her like she wanted to chew her arm off and use it to beat her or, just as likely, clean her teeth with it. A quick glance around showed nothing useful to contain the wolf with and, despite its bite, Kara really didn’t want to hurt it. “I need to go rescue my friend but… be a good wolf and stay, okay? Rao! I don’t even know if you can understand me but, please, stay here and we’ll work this out!”

Kara shot up into the air, leaving the wolf in a cloud of dirt as she leapt for her throat. That was one pissed-off wolf! But, Kara had more pressing issues on her mind as she shot back towards the city.

Lena!

“Lena!?” Kara bypassed the smear of blood on the edge of the balcony and landed in the middle of Lena’s office.

Lena’s empty office.

Kara rushed between floors, searching every office she could find but found no trace of her friend apart from her phone lying abandoned on her desk.

She called in Alex and J’onn and begged for the help they were unwilling to give as it sounded more like a simple kidnapping to them and kidnappings were something best left to the normal authorities. Not even telling them about the wolf could persuade them as the wolf had made good her escape and they still didn’t really believe her that she existed at all.

“I know you’re worried about Luthor but you need to come in and get checked out, Kara. Spend the night under the sun lamps instead of flying around like I know you have been.”

“I’m not lying, Alex!” Kara bit out in frustration. “Look, she bit me! She was able to draw blood!” Kara peeled back her suit but there was nothing left to show for her run-in with the wolf other than the blood staining her suit as her body had already healed.

Alex gently plucked a twig out of the tangle of her sister’s golden hair. “Kara, I’m worried you’re still suffering from concussion. It could be affecting your powers enough to make you see things and act like a solar flare. Please, come back to the DEO and let us check you out.” She ran her hands up and down Kara’s shoulders, begging her to calm down through touch alone.

“I know what I saw, Alex.” Taking off from the ground, Kara hovered just out of reach.

_“Agent Danvers. Supergirl. Come in.”_

Alex pressed a finger to her ear to activate her mic. “What is it, Agent Vasquez?”

_“We just got a message delivered right to the DEO from Cadmus.”_

“Great,” Kara growled. “What did they have to say now?”

_“They’re claiming that they are the ones that have got Lena Luthor.”_


	6. *** NOTE ***

Sorry, just an AN and not an update on all my Supercorp stories.

Firstly, I never though in my heart that Supercorp would become real. The chemistry is there but the show had proved repeatedly they are not invested in giving us a consistent LGBTQIA+ story even when they have got the characters in place by barely using them.

This is twice now (not including all of Mechad’s comments/views) where the cast has hurt our community and fuelled hatred that is always there. That coupled with the blatant queer bating that has been used to promote this season has left such a sour taste in my mouth that I can’t even stand the thought of touching my Supercorp stories.

They are not going to be abandoned (I hope) I just need to give myself time to heal so they are on hold. I will always love and support the Supercorp fandom but the show and cast will have to do a lot to draw me back into watching ever again.

When I’m back this note will be deleted and a chapter put in its place. Until then, stay strong, know you are all loved and that your love of Supercorp or any other ship is valid.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really post much but, if you want to find me on Twitter... https://twitter.com/Lone_Cathy


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